TV problem

[CaptainTom]

I have a TV in my office. It used to be connected to rabbit ears and got a horrible, but ok for me signal. Along comes digital and I buy a converter. It doesn't work because the signal is so bad.
I put a splitter on the Dish cable coming into my bedroom, and fed a new cable to the office TV. It worked great. For a week. Today it goes in and out and wiggling the cable , etc. doesn't fix it. I brought in the big mother tv from the living room and hooked it up, but get nothing.
What am I missing here ?

[dbphotos]

Tom,

It may be that there isn't enough power coming through the signal to both t.v.'s. They sell power splitters are Radio Shack. You might give that a try? Odd that it was working and now it's not. I don't know if Dish can turn up and down power, but I know cable companies can and it may have adjusted.

[CaptainTom]

I gave up and moved everything back the way it was before.
Now it works again. So now I have a sore back and still don't know what happened.
Thanks for the reply. I am using cheapo RS cable and I think it shorted out somewhere and my moving things around fixed the short (for now).

Worse case scenario.. I call DISH and pay to have them string an outlet to my office. Probably get a new an updated unit as well.

[kenw]

splitters DO go bad. They cost what? $5?

[toverman]

We've got only rabbit ears in our house, and have been using a digital converter since June. What's crazy is that the analog signal for WFAA is really strong, but we can't even pick up the digital one. I'm hoping when stations don't have to send out the analog signal that more power will be dedicated for the digital, but what I'm really hoping is that I don't have to install a gigantic antenna on top or in the attic of my house.

[kenw]

Todd, you wil probably need an amplified digital antenna, or perhaps an inline amplifier. I don't think the digital signal will ever be made stronger.

[toverman]

Thanks, Ken. That's on my list to try, but I'll probably wait a few weeks before buying one (after all, we can still get the channel in question bright and clear on analog!).

What happened to the good ol' days when a little aluminum foil did the trick?

[Dobick]

I have an inline amp (25 mw I think) that does a decent job of boosting the signal. I recently bought a flat 360 degree "digital" antenna and in reality my signal got better than the rabbit ears were doing (I bought the antenna to use at work on the day of the cotton bowl, and it got amazing reception on digital)

You might try an amped unit.

[nastytrucker]

Yep out here where I live 1.5 hrs NW of Houston, 40min from College Station, we could just barely get a couple Houston channels and 1 channel from College Station. Now with Digital, NOTHING. Oh well, we have Sat. anyways but its nice to have a backup if needed....

[jerrykr]

Tom, get a voltmeter and check continunity (sp?) on all your cables, and links. Sounds like you have a bad connector on one of the cables. Wiggle stuff while you are checking.

I also agree with the comments about using an amplifier for your cable runs, adding more cable increases signal loss, so I understand. I'm no expert, but I think that using the small, cheap co-ax also contributes to signal loss on that leg of your cabling.

[picman]

Here is a site that will tell you how far and what direction you are from the transmitters and what type of signal they sending. www.antennaweb.org

This is my understanding - open to correction.
The old 2-13 channels were vhf that rabbit ears were designed for.
The new digital channels are uhf - this is were the loop antennas and other uhf designs come in.
Walls, metal siding, radiant barriers, etc will impede the siginal

I used to do some studio wiring and quit buying premade cables because of so many problems and made my own.